After a pep talk from Pedro Strop, Javier Baez hits his 25th HR in the Cubs' 3-1 win

Strop pitched a perfect ninth inning to preserve the Cubs’ 3-1 win over the Royals, and he also gave Javier Baez a pep talk during a 22-minute rain delay after the slugger was upset about his two early strikeouts.

“I was screaming to him,” Strop said. “ ‘Wake up! You got a game to play. You’re the man. The next two at-bats, watch. You’re going to get two hits.’ ”

Baez responded with a tie-breaking home run in the sixth inning against reliever Kevin McCarthy, and he added an RBI double in the eighth.

“After the rain delay, I went out there with a different attitude,” Baez said.

Baez also made a diving stop at third base to rob Jorge Bonifacio of a hit in the second as the Cubs (65-47) extended their lead in the National League Central to 1 1/2 games over the idle Brewers.

Baez’s team-leading 25th homer was his third in four games and the sixth in his last 10. He became one of three Cubs to collect at least 30 doubles, five triples, 25 home runs and 15 stolen bases in a season, joining Ryne Sandberg (1985 and 1992) and Alfonso Soriano (2007).

Baez’s performance provided enough comfort for Hamels, who pitched six innings of seven-hit ball while weaving out of trouble in the first and fifth innings in his second start as a Cub.

“I know I need to pitch deeper into games,” Hamels said.

The Cubs needed a strong start from Hamels after Jon Lester was knocked around in a 10-6 loss Sunday to the Padres that inflated his ERA to 8.53 over his past four starts.

Hamels was furious after he allowed a single in the fifth on an 0-2 pitch to No. 9 batter Drew Butera, who was batting .184 entering Monday’s game.

“I don’t want to lay this all on Cole,” Maddon said before the game. “He’s one-fifth of the rotation now. It’s about everybody. It’s about us scoring points. It’s about catching the ball and playing defense, not making fundamental mistakes out there. It’s a group situation. We are a team. As a group, we have to do our jobs.”

The Cubs struggled to score for most of the night. Willson Contreras was thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double for the second out of the second. The Cubs mustered only one run in the fourth (on a wild pitch by Jakob Junis) after Ben Zobrist led off the inning with a triple and Jason Heyward followed with a walk.

In the fifth, the Cubs loaded the bases with one out but didn’t score against Junis.

“We’ve gotten back to not using the other side of the field,” Maddon said. “We got to get back to that middle-of-the-field approach.”

As for the rotation, with days off scheduled for Thursday and Aug. 13 and series against the Nationals and Brewers coming up, some minor changes could be in store.

“We’re discussing it now,” Maddon said. “We haven’t decided anything. That was something I was going through. There are a couple different possibilities with two days off.

“The concern would be if you manipulated it too much, you might get guys with too many days off. So it hasn’t been decided, but we’re talking about it right now.”